The Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography was founded in 1959, adjacent to the Academy of Sciences of Armenia. The institute has the following sections: Archaeology, Ethnology and Folklore Studies each of which has its respective departments. The Oral History Center operates within the Department of Contemporary Anthropological Studies (Ethnology).

The Oral History Center was established in 2017 as an educational and research center. Annually it provides both closed courses/lectures/talks for the Center researchers to develop their knowledge and skills, and public courses/lectures/talks to disseminate the methodology and approaches of Oral History among social scientists.

For the last three years the Center has delivered about 10 educational courses on oral history methodology. Within the projects of the Center, an exhibition was organized based on the photos taken by the students of the Center during their fieldwork, and a collection of essays written by them was published (“Unheard voices: Memory and Post-Memory in Oral History”, ed. by G. Shagoyan, Yerevan: IAE Publishing House, 2018).

Now the Center collaborates with the American University of Armenia and American University of Paris to develop social tours on Genocide memory policy in Armenia, by mapping the memory policy from top-down to grassroots.

AREA / SUBJECT OF THE FELLOWSHIP

The fellowship area will be anthropology particularly social memory.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PROPOSED FELLOWSHİP ACTIVITY

As the Center works on the memory policy mapping in the urban and rural places in Armenia, we need a specialized tailor-made course on social memory, including both an overview of the theoretical approaches and successful cases of such research done in Turkey. It is very important to understand what kinds of public and academic discourses are developed around the memory issues (some of them are very controversial in the two neighboring countries), and try to compare different cases of social memory manifestations.

The course will be provided for the students of the Oral History Center; at the moment we have 10 participants who are involved in the project of Genocide memory mapping, but it will be open for other young researchers and students who have a background in social sciences and are interested in social memory and its problems. Thus, an open call will be announced to recruit other participants. The course will last for two weeks (3 lessons per week). The fellow will develop the course outline with its relevant literature resources, and the experts of the Oral History Center will provide consultancy, if needed.Meanwhile the Center would like to develop a joint future project with the fellow on the memory landscape in Turkey and Armenia.

EXPECTED PROFILE

The fellow should have a PhD degree in social sciences (anthropology, sociology, education, history, etc.)
The fellow is expected to have a considerable teaching experience, in particular, in delivering courses on social memory. S/he should be aware of the social memory practices in Turkey as part of historical and political configurations and processes regarding national, ethnic, and cultural construction of remembering and forgetting.

CONDITIONS OF THE FELLOWSHIP OPPORTUNITY

The institute is open from Monday to Friday. The fellowship schedule will be discussed in detail with the fellow.

PROPOSED TIME FOR THE FELLOWSHIP

2 weeks in August-September 2020